Both Ovarian Fluid and Female Urine Increase Sex Steroid Hormone Levels in Mature Atlantic Salmon (Salmo salar) Male Parr

We compared the ability of urine and ovarian fluid from female Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar) to stimulate increase in plasma concentrations of sex steroid hormones in mature conspecific male parr (priming effect of the stimuli). We also tested the hypothesis that prostaglandin F₂ (PGF₂) may act as a priming pheromone in the tested stimulants. Individual males of salmon parr were exposed to female urine, ovarian fluid, urine–ovarian fluid mix, or PGF₂. Plasma concentrations of the sex steroids of 17,20-dihydroxy-4-pregnen-3-one (17,20-P) were higher in males exposed to urine, ovarian fluids, and PGF₂ compared to control males. PGF₂ and a mixture of urine and ovarian fluid also gave increased concentrations of 11-ketotestosterone (11-KT). Concentrations of PGF₂ were higher in ovarian fluids than in urine. A behavior test with mature male parr in a fluviarium showed neither attraction to nor avoidance of 0.1 nM PGF₂, but plasma levels of 17,20-P were significantly higher in exposed males compared to controls.     

Changes in perception and liking for everyday food odors among older adults

The age-related decline in olfactory function is well established and concerns intensity perception and odor identification. However, the extent to which olfactory decline influences food preferences is less clear. Furthermore, it is unclear whether there are decline patterns relating to food odors, specifically. This study investigated intensity perception and hedonic liking for 14 multi-component food odors and one pure odorant in three groups of older adults (age 60–69, age 70–70, age 80 + ) and a group of young adults. In total 335 subjects were tested, 246 old and very old adults and 89 young adults. The age group 60–69 was on par with the young adults, whereas intensity perception declined for the majority of odors for older adults age 70–79 and the very old age 80 + . The largest drop in intensity perception was seen for savory odors; fried meat, mushroom and onion. In contrast, intensity perception for raspberry and orange did not differ between groups of older adults and young adults. Hedonic liking decreased to some degree with increasing age but remained largely the same for savory odors (bacon, mushroom, fried meat and onion). A decline in liking was seen for coffee and thyme. This study shows evidence that age-related decline in intensity perception is food odor specific and some aggregation may occur at a higher concept level for the “savory” category. Furthermore, hedonic liking is not necessarily dependent on the intensity perception as seen for several odors, where declining intensity perception did not impact hedonic liking. This could be explained by changes in dose-response relationships for the group of ageing individuals, which in fact may favor persistence of the food odor liking, despite a decline in their intensity perception.     

Ecoepidemics with infected prey in herd defence: the harmless and toxic cases

We consider a predator–prey population model with prey gathering together for defence purposes. A transmissible unrecoverable disease affects the prey. We characterize the system behaviour, establishing that ultimately either only the susceptible prey survive, or the disease becomes endemic, but the predators are wiped out. Another alternative is that the disease is eradicated, with sound prey and predators thriving at an equilibrium or through persistent population oscillations. Finally, the populations can thrive together, with the endemic disease. The only impossible alternative in these circumstances is predators thriving just with infected prey. But this follows from the model assumptions, in that infected prey are too weak to sustain themselves. A mathematical peculiarity of the model is the singularity-free reformulation, which leads to three entirely new dependent variables to describe the system. The model is then extended to encompass the situation in which ingestion of diseased prey is fatal for the predators and to the cases where the predators find the infected prey less palatable.     

Receptor contributions to configural and elemental odor mixture perception.

Odor mixture perception can be configural (the mixture is qualitatively different from the components) or elemental (the components are recognizable). Some have argued that configural properties are dependent on chemical similarity and possible overlap at the receptor level. The authors show that a binary mixture in which both components activate the same receptor (17) has a configural odor, whereas a mixture that suppresses overlap has elemental odor properties. Rats trained to recognize mixtures of citronellal and octanal (strong 17 agonists) in many ratios rarely recognize the components, supporting configural representation of the odor mixture. However, when trained to recognize mixtures of citral (partial 17 agonist, inhibitor) and octanal, rats recognize 1 or both components over a wide range of ratios. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Death Anxiety and the Emotion-Processing Mind.

Death anxiety, a critical influence on human life and its psychotherapies, has been relatively neglected by psychoanalytic writers. The author proposes several reasons for this oversight and introduces the communicative or strong adaptive approach to psychotherapy and psychoanalysis, which has recently begun to explore this issue. The features of the approach are described, with emphasis on a revised version of Freud's topographic model of the mind. Three forms of death anxiety are postulated: existential, predatory, and predator. The author explores the effects of each form on emotional adaptations and the psychotherapy experience, and their role in the evolution of the emotion-processing mind-the postulated mental module with which people adapt to emotionally charged events and their meanings. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Antennal olfactory responses of black turpentine beetle,Dendroctonus terebrans (Olivier), to bark beetle pheromones and host terpenes

Electroantennograms (EAGs) were recorded from male and female black turpentine beetles,Dendroctonus terebrans (Olivier), exposed to bark beetle pheromones and host terpenes. The dose-response curves indicated similarities in the receptor mechanisms for both sexes for each compound. Antennal sensitivity was greatest toendo-brevicomin, which correlates with the importance of the compound in the behavior of the beetles. At above-threshold concentrations, EAGs were greatest toendo-brevicomin and frontalin, suggesting a large population of antennal receptors for these compounds. A large population of receptors would be expected for compounds that play such a significant role in this beetle's behavior. Beetles were also shown to have receptors that respond to theIps pheromones, ipsenol, and ipsdienol.Research done in part while in the Department of Entomology, Texas Agricultural Experiment Station (TAES), Texas A&M University, and supported in part through McIntire-Stennis project 1525, USDA-CR Grant 85-CRCR-1-1856, and NATO Collaborative Research Grant 86-0710. All programs of the Agricultural Experiment Station are available without regard to race, ethnic origin, sex, or age. Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University does not discriminate against employees, students, or applicants on the basis of race, sex, handicap, age, veteran status, national origin, religion or political affiliation.     

Identification of a Widespread Monomolecular Odor Differentially Attractive to Several <Emphasis Type="Italic">Delia Radicum</Emphasis> Ground-dwelling Predators in the Field

Dimethyl disulfide (DMDS) was identified as a major volatile constituent of Brassica napus roots heavily infested by Delia radicum, the cabbage root fly. Attractiveness of this widespread compound was tested in the field in a naturally complex odorous environment. By using an original setup especially designed for ground dwelling beetles, different concentrations of the pure molecule as well as attractiveness of the natural blend emitted by the rotten part of infested roots were tested simultaneously. The use of general linear model (GLM) statistics permitted us to finely discriminate the responses among the different treatments. The main predators of D. radicum (i.e., two staphylinids Aleochara bilineata and Aleochara bipustulata and carabid beetles of the genus Bembidion) were significantly attracted by DMDS, but responded in different ways to the natural blend and to the different concentrations tested. The dose–response curves were similar for the two staphylinids. However, whereas A. bilineata was more attracted by the natural volatile blend than by its preferred DMDS concentration, A. bipustulata was attracted as much by the natural blend as by its preferred DMDS concentration. Carabid beetles exhibited a different response. They were not attracted by the natural blend, but responded to a wider range of DMDS concentrations that included low concentrations that did not attract the staphylinid beetles. These results are discussed according to the potential resources searched by each taxon studied and their specificity for the resources. The possible use of DMDS for enhancing biological control of D. radicum is mentioned.     

Comparative Study of Prey Predator Algorithm and Firefly Algorithm

Metaheuristic algorithms are found to be promising for difficult and high dimensional problems. Most of these algorithms are inspired by different natural phenomena. Currently, there are hundreds of these metaheuristic algorithms introduced and used. The introduction of new algorithm has been one of the issues researchers focused in the past fifteen years. However, there is a critic that some of the new algorithms are not in fact new in terms of their search behavior. Hence, a comparative study in between existing algorithms to highlight their differences and similarity needs to be studied. Apart from knowing the similarity and difference in search mechanisms of these algorithms it will also help to set criteria on when to use these algorithms. In this paper a comparative study of prey predator algorithm and firefly algorithm will be discussed. The discussion will also be supported by simulation results on selected twenty benchmark problems with different properties. A statistical analysis called Mann—Whitney U 2 test is used to compare the algorithms. The theoretical as well as simulation results support that prey predator algorithm is a more generalized search algorithm, whereas firefly algorithm falls as a special case of prey predator algorithm by fixing some of the parameters of prey predator algorithm to certain values.     

Rater (dis)agreement on risk assessment measures in sexually violent predator proceedings: Evidence of adversarial allegiance in forensic evaluation?

Actuarial risk assessment measures are often admitted in court, partly because strong psychometric properties such as interrater agreement suggest that they increase reliability and reduce subjectivity in forensic evaluation. But how strong is rater agreement when raters are retained by opposing sides in adversarial legal proceedings? The authors review sexual offender civil commitment cases in which opposing evaluators reported scores on the STATIC-99, the Minnesota Sex Offender Sex Offender Screening Tool—Revised (MnSOST–R), or the Psychopathy Checklist—Revised (PCL–R) for the same individual. Differences between scores from opposing evaluators were often greater than expected based on rater agreement values reported in the instrument manuals and research literature. Score differences were often in a direction that supported the party who retained each evaluator. Rater agreement was stronger for the STATIC-99, intraclass correlation coefficient ([ICC]A,1) = .64; than for the MnSOST–R, ICC(A,1) = .48; and the PCL–R, ICC(A,1) = .42. STATIC-99 scores appeared less influenced by adversarial allegiance. Overall, however, results raise concern that an evaluator's adversarial allegiance could influence some assessment instrument scores in forensic evaluation. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

造纸废水处理单元臭气治理

针对造纸废水生化处理厂产生的臭气,采用好氧活性污泥喷淋吸收-生物滤床过滤-化学除臭组合工艺,其中活性污泥喷淋工艺可去除50%左右的硫化氢(H2S)及氨气(NH3),降低末端化学喷淋段碱液耗用量(低至200 kg/d),最终在15 m烟囱排放出口检测出的H2S及NH3浓度均达到我国GB 14554—1993《恶臭污染物排放标准》中的排放要求。